Anyone have a slow cooking turkey recipe ? Thinking of oven, but really I prob need a smoker. Let me know what you guys and gals do out there.

__________________
with wings as eagles

There isn't much recipe needed the way we do it. We buy a whole turkey breast, place it in a large crock pot and put in either canned mushroom soup or onion soup mix. Cook overnight and eat! It ends up tender and moist.

I love most foods cooked in a smoker but have never tried a turkey. Sure it can be done though, just plan on spending a good deal of time for the process. I bet you are looking at 15 or more hours for a 18 pound bird.

I salt and pepper a turkey breast, put it in a crock pot with a stick of butter, fill with water, and cook on high about 8 hours. It comes out tender and juicy. Do it on the morning, and its ready to eat when you come home from work. The juice from this is also great to boil dumplings in. Hint: I cut dumplings from flour tortillas.

Wild or Domestic?...I suppose the slowest cooking method would be pit-cooking, but the treatment between wild or domestic birds would make the difference...
Mmmm...Turkey. Ya' lucky so-and-so.

Our favorite is on our Weber Charcoal Grill. Google "turkey on a weber charcoal grill" for more detailed info.

We really like to stuff the cavity with onions and oranges, then roast in the oven normally. It makes the bird really moist.

Fix up your bird however you like. Put it in an aluminum tray (big one) Put in a cup of water, cover with foil and shove it in the oven at 250 degrees before you go to bed. Noon tomorrow you have a turkey perfectly moist. Take off the foil a half hour before eating if you want crispy skin And if you could snatch the bones, it'd look like the tablecloth trick. Joe

__________________
Behavior Creates Destiny

I have Hot smoked a many of them on my BBQ pit. I season them (12-14 lb turkey) with salt and pepper or some cajun seasoning cut off most of the fat and skin flaps. I have brined them but don't find it makes a lot of difference. Then I soak some hickory chips shake off the water and put them in a foil packet which I set on the burner grate of my gas grill, the foil packet is not well sealed so the smoke can get out but it won't burn up too fast. I get the grill to around 185 degrees and put the turkey in about 11 pm the next morning the doneness indicator has popped out and it is done. Your pit and the ambient temp will affect the time so you may want to check it midway. You need a pit high enough to hold the turkey and with at least three burners so you can light just one or two and not have the trukey directly over the flame. It is very good and the carcass makes excellent turkey - veg. soup!
Steve

I use a bullet smoker for turkeys up to about 16-18 lbs.

I brine them at least 12 hours, it does improve the juicyness by lenghtening the protein molecules and allowing the turkey to soak up some of the brine. For brine I use a 5 gallon bucket, H2O to cover (about 2.5 gal), enough non-iodized salt in the H2O to float a raw egg, and an amount of brown sugar to equal the sugar.

I put the turkey in about 8 hours prior to wanting to eat it. I use an electric smoker so I use wood chips (usually a mixture of cherry and apple) in a Marie Callendars pie pan covered with foil and holes punched in the foil on top of the lava rocks. That will smoke for 2-3 hours and then I switch it out with another pan of wood.

In the H2O pan I put water, green onions split lengthways, whole garlic cloves and a handful of parsley.

About an hour before I am going to start the turkey I set it out so it can dry and the sugar makes a very thin coating.

It goes in the smoker, on the top rack and gets left alone for at least 3 hours. I change the wood chips and start checking the turkey at about the 5 hour mark. It will get very dark because of the sugar, if you don't want that, try covering with foil. Keep the "I have to look and see how it is doing" checks to a minimum, you don't want to lose the heat in the smoker by taking the lid off a lot.

At about the 6 hour mark you can start checking doneness with an instant read thermometer in the thigh. When it gets done, set inside, covered with foil for 30 minutes or so and let it rest.

Carve and enjoy.

bob